The Horn of Africa, one of the most volatile regions in the world, edged closer to war yesterday after Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian Prime Minister, said that his country was prepared to take on a powerful Islamic alliance in Somalia.

Mr Meles told the Ethiopian parliament that the Islamists presented a “clear and present danger” to Ethiopia, whose main regional enemy — Eritrea — was arming them. He said that attempts to settle the crisis through dialogue and negotiation had failed.

“When any country faces that type of danger it has the full right to defend itself against this threat . . . To exercise this right, we have been preparing for this kind of response because it is our responsibility,” Mr Meles said. Opposition MPs criticised his statement, saying that it amounted to “a declaration of war”.

The Islamists, who control most of Somalia, later met in Mogadishu, the capital, and vowed to defend the country against a “reckless and war-thirsty” Ethiopia.

At the same time, the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia, a coalition of 11 Islamic organisations that gained power this year from local warlords, invited Washington to send an official delegation to Mogadishu for talks.

Abdurahim Muddey, a council spokesman, said: “We are inviting the United States to send a delegation to see what is happening in Somalia . . . The US delegation will be received by our foreign relations chief, Ibrahim Hassan Addow, who is himself an American citizen.”

The United States has accused the Islamists of links to al-Qaeda and has encouraged Ethiopia to send 5,000 troops to support a government based in the border town of Baidoa.

A UN report also recently accused 11 countries of fuelling the conflict in Somalia by supplying arms to either side. It said that the influx of weaponry risked igniting a new regional war in the Horn of Africa similar to the 1976-78 Ogaden War in which America and the Soviet Union backed opposing sides.

Aidan Hartley, a regional analyst and author, told The Times: “We are now looking at a potent mix of nationalism and Islam. Many of the Islamists are also nationalists who have never forgotten the humiliation of losing the Ogaden [to Ethiopia].”

Several regional experts have disputed the report, which also claimed that Somali fighters fought alongside Hezbollah against Israel in last summer’s Lebanon conflict. They said that only a handful of the Islamists were extremists and that the American approach risked strengthening, rather than weakening, their position.

In echoes of allegations against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq before its invasion, the UN report also alleged that Iran sought to purchase uranium from the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia in exchange for weapons. It named 11 countries that have violated the country’s arms embargo, including Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, Libya and Egypt.

Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the supreme leader of the Islamists, has been designated a terrorist by the US, which earlier this month said that Somali extremists may be plotting suicide attacks in Kenya and Ethiopia.

Intelligence sources say that Washington has indicated to Ethiopia that it would not oppose a military operation to remove the Islamists, but regional experts say that such an action would ignite the region. Eritrea and Ethiopia fought a devastating border war in 1998-2000 and have several unresolved border disputes. It is feared that both would soon be directly embroiled in any fresh conflict.

Washington previously ran a covert operation to support Somali warlords fighting the Islamists for control of Mogadishu, which collapsed in June when the city fell. The warlords carved up Somalia in 1991 after Mohamed Siad Barre, the Cold War dictator, was overthrown and since then the country has known nothing but anarchy.

Yesterday, European Union sources in Brussels, highlighting the danger of war in the Horn of Africa, distanced themselves from the US policy of opposition to the Islamists.

“They have done what no one else has done for 15 years — brought a measure of stability to the country . . . We need a more balanced approach,” a senior European Commission official with responsibility for the region said.

The Islamists deny any connection to terrorism, but the Somali Government accuses them of staging a suicide car bomb attempt to kill the President in Baidoa in September.

One faction is also believed to have killed an Italian nun in September and a Scandinavian television reporter last June.

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